Welcome Back Pine Valley

On September 23, 2011, "All My Children" aired their final episode on TV. During the Tribute to Pine Valley tour on the blogs there was much talk of it coming back in January 2012, but online this time. 

There were many questions -- how would this happen? Would it still be free? Who would come back? How would it be different?

One thing led to another and it didn't happen. The ending of the show was left with lots of closure, yet open ended enough that it could pick up where it left off. When it was announced that it would not continue, I'll admit, I felt robbed of a decent closing. The last scene had JR pointing a gun at a room filled with most of Pine Valley and Tad Martin giving a speech that would make his adopted father proud. The gun fires, and the show ended.

Fast forward to 2013. An announcement is made that The OnLine Network (TOLN) will start showing new episodes of "All My Children" on April 29, 2013. Prospect Park is the creator of the new shows.

Back to the online flurry of questions: how will this happen? Will it still be free? Who will come back? How will it be different?

***SPOILER ALERT***

Rather than posting the answers on FaceBook, I'm posting them here.

Each day (starting a midnight (or is it 5 AM?)) a new episode will air for free at Hulu.com. You have to watch a 1 minute ad (no biggie). Up to 10 episodes will be available. If you need to back further than that, subscribe to Hulu Plus. Hulu.com can only be watched on a computer. Hulu Plus allows you to connect it to your TV set. mobile device or tablet and it eliminates commercials. So far I'm fine with it on my laptop.

Many favorites came back: Brooke, Adam (who had retired when the show moved to California), Opal, David, Bianca, Joe (who also retired), Cara, Griff, Angie, Jesse, Cassandra, Zach, and a few others. Missing, though for one reason or another, Erica (how can the show continue without Susan Lucci?), Jack, Tad, Kendall, and so far no JR (the actor is on a different soap and could not work out an agreement, I heard he was being recast). 

The episodes are only 30 minutes long instead of 60. Not much difference when you factor in there were a lot more commercials on TV.

The show is set on the 5th anniversary of the shooting. Accept that shooting took place in the Fall and the show is set in the Spring and move on. Accept that most of the actors have barely aged 18 months (in some cases look younger due to some rest). Accept that the kids have been aged at odd increments (elementary school kids are now in high school, older kids are now post college age) and move on. It is a soap after all.

The show is already definitely steamier. Already AJ has dropped his towel, Jesse and Angie have gone at it on the couch, and Cara has had a fantasy scene with David. Hope the actors used their time off at the gym. ;)

The new sets are beautiful. Opal now has a home. I'll miss that the outdoor scenes are now filmed in Connecticut instead of Princeton, New Jersey. Beats when they filmed the outdoor set in California, though.

AMC has not added many new characters (so far), but the addition of the older kids is going to take a few days to adjust to. Bianca, who still looks to be in her 20s is mom to Miranda, who is now in high school instead of being Ashley's age. Same with AJ and Dixie, except they are supposed to be grandson and grandmother. That type of thing.

The first episode tried to answer some questions as to what happened during the last five years. Today they implied Tad has been in a coma this whole time (leaves room for a return!). Sounds like David was involved with the shooting? Lucy (the baby Jesse stole for Angie) was in their lives for the past five years. She stayed the same age and just moved to Portland. Brooke and Adam are still together, but not yet married (AMC loves to put on weddings). Lots of questions still. 

This format is nice because you can log in at anytime to watch it. No setting the VCR (yes, I'm still stuck in the 1990s). I can watch it anywhere in the US. Sounds like they struck a deal with Canada, too. I'm not up on those details.

I thought my AMC habit was dead. I no longer twitch at 1 PM to watch it. I hardly ever scowl at my parents when they talk about "Days of Our Lives." Today, that changes ... I can resume visiting my friends and wondering my my grandmother would have thought of this transition. Wondering where these story lines will go.

Tune in tomorrow for more happenings.

Day 2: maybe yesterday's guesses were all wrong? I miss KathyPVB's spoiler alerts. 

Some questions are answered here. There will only be four episodes a week, with Friday airing a recap. So instead of the Friday cliffhanger, we can look forward to Thursday cliffhangers.